To make moksi alesi, you start by cooking your protein — often smoked fish or chicken — with onions, garlic, peppers and tomatoes. Then you add the rice and just enough water or coconut milk to cook everything together. As it all simmers in the pot, the rice absorbs the smoky, spicy, savoury flavours until every grain is full of taste.
Moksi alesi is popular across all of Suriname's many communities because it is flexible. Creole families might add salted cod. Maroon families might use freshwater fish from the river. Javanese families might add a chilli paste called sambal. Whatever goes in, the result is always warming and filling.
The dish reflects Suriname's identity perfectly. Suriname is home to people from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas — all cooking together, adapting and sharing. Moksi alesi is the edible version of that mixing, and Surinamese people are proud of it.